A bit of a rant instead of the normal linux talk… but bottom line. Never, ever, ever, ever purchase Sony products– unless you like to waste money.
I bought the Sony MDR-Ex300 professional line headphones in Sept 2009, and one of the ear-buds stopped outputting sound in early May 2010. I babied these headphones — I always kept them in the case when not in use, and used them SOLELY for my professional work. Sony only carries a 90 day limited warranty on these headphones (and probably the rest of their headphones). I talked to their CSR and after asking them to replace it, they were only able to offer me EITHER:
1. To cover 50% of the cost of a refurb ($25 bucks)
or
2. $49 dollars for a replacement for a similar model.
I didn’t think it made sense to give them more money to give me yet another defective, poorly made, super flimsy product. I passed on their offer and filed a complaint instead. It’s not the money– 25 bucks is half a tank of gas these days– It’s the principle– Sony should make things right without burdening the consumer. IMO– Sony used to be a name you could trust for reliability and quality– today.. not at all!
I explicitly pointed out the following to the CSR, but they still wouldn’t budge.
1. I did not abuse these headphones. I always used the case included with this product– and had a separate set of headphones for exercising!
2. Why is it only a 90 day limited warranty — is this because the headphones are only suppose to last for 90 days? The headphones that I (ab)use when I exercise still work fine and I got them at the same time I got the MDR-EX300’s
3. Other companies have better warranties — Bose (1 year), Klipsch (2 years).
4. Professional grade headphones should mean that it’s a professional product– Not some super cheap-o product that breaks upon normal use!
I will never purchase another Sony product ever again, and ban all of my clients from using any of their products. The Sony company has been progressively getting worst over the years. It’s one thing to sell a faulty product (sure, everyone makes mistakes), but a company like Sony should go out of their way to correct things when things aren’t right — it’s things like this that show that they’re nickle and dime-ing every place (construction, warranty, support, etc..) they can get their hands on.